'They know what it takes to win titles’: Hilliard Davidson girls cross country seeks to continue legacy
Thursday, October 16, 2025
By Michael Rich
mrichnotwealthy@gmail.com
Hilliard Davidson senior Erica Kaulen, a Youngstown State commit, leads the Wildcats in their efforts to once again place high at the state cross country meet. Photo: Kevin Rouch
Sitting in the gym at Hilliard Davidson High School a few weeks ago for a ring ceremony to honor last year’s girls track and field team after winning Division I state championship last year, Chase Hampton found himself looking up at all the banners representing the girls cross country team.
He took a moment to acknowledge to himself exactly what he had just gotten himself into taking over as coach of the program.
Hampton, a 2015 Hilliard Darby graduate where he was a state qualifier, succeeded Nate King as coach. King ran the Wildcats from 2012 until his resignation last spring.
“I’m sitting in the gymnasium and I’m looking up at the banners and I’m like, ‘Wow, this is crazy.’ Sometimes I can’t believe that I get to be the coach here,” Hampton said.
But then another thought came to mind.
“Looking up there is one of those things of like, I want to add my own years to those banners, and I want to be a part of teams that get to add to those things,” he said. “And we got to do that (Oct. 11) and that was really, really exciting.”
Hampton was referring to the OCC-Central Division meet where Davidson won its 11th consecutive league title with 46 points, besting Olentangy Liberty (57), Upper Arlington (77), Dublin Coffman (98), Olentangy Orange (115) and Hilliard Bradley (121).
It’s the first step in a journey through the postseason that culminates Nov. 1 at the Division I state meet at Fortress Obetz. The Wildcats have been state runners-up each of the last three seasons.
Senior Erica Kaulen, a Youngstown State commit, led the Wildcats at the league meet when she finished second at 17 minutes, 50.26 seconds just behind Liberty’s Elena Aldrink (17:11.26).
Senior Celia Schulte (fourth, 18:21.51), junior Mackenzie Kline (seventh, 18:40. 83), senior Gemma Pusateri (15th, 19:37.75) and sophomore Laken Wenclewicz (18th, 19:44.5) also scored for Davidson in a well-rounded effort.
Celia Schulte, a Hilliard Davidson senior who will run for the Furman Paladins, competed for head coach Chase Hampton when he was her middle school coach. Photo: Kevin Rouch
It wasn’t a foregone conclusion that the Wildcats would have their full complement of runners. Kline, a tennis player as well, teamed with sister Madison Kline, a senior, but lost in the second round of the Division I district tournament to Upper Arlington’s Dani Bell and Sylvie Lederer, who eventually won the title and qualified for state.
Kline isn’t alone in other athletic pursuits. Wenclewicz spends most of the week practicing swimming where she qualified for state last season, finishing 17th in the backstroke.
“They know what it takes to win titles and so (I’m) not overcoaching them in that sense,” Hampton said. “And kind of just letting them adapt and letting them be the great athletes that they are but then making the minor tweaks that we have.”
A new era
The legacy runs deep. King guided the Wildcats to 13 district championships, 10 OCC titles and six regional crowns. Davidson made the state meet the last 15 years in a row.
Pat Schlecht coached the boys and girls programs from 1997-2004 before running the boys team solely until his retirement last spring. The Wildcats won a Division I state title in 2002 and finished second in 2000 and 2001. His girls teams won seven district titles, five league championships and four regional crowns.
Schlecht, who was succeeded by Seth Vipperman, guided the boys team to a state championship in 2002 as well as 19 district titles, 18 OCC crowns and nine regional championships.
Both Schlecht and King served as distance coaches in track in the spring.
King, a 2005 Davidson graduate, ran for Schlecht and was a part of the 2002 state title-winning team.
Schulte acknowledged looking at the banners when she’s in the gym.
“I’m the type of person that sees something that we’ve accomplished and I’m like, ‘All right, what can we do to get better?’” she said. “I’m never looking at something, saying, like, ‘This is our ceiling.’
“We achieve something really great, but there’s more there and we can always do something to get better. We can always learn from the past season or prior year.”
Hilliard Davidson senior Gemma Pusateri (left) and sophomore Laken Wenclewicz run for the Wildcats at Thomas Worthington’s Eisenhart Invitational on Oct. 4. Photo: Kevin Rouch
Kaulen and Schulte have previous experience with Hampton. He coached them in seventh grade at Weaver Middle School.
“I wouldn’t rather be anyone else,” said Schulte, who is committed to Furman. “My head went straight to Coach Hampton when I had learned coach King had resigned. (Hampton) had coached me to a five flat mile in seventh grade, and that set a state record for middle schoolers. So … we had that history together.”
Trust the process
Hampton doesn’t coach the same way as his predecessor, but Kaulen has taken well to the different approach. She set her personal record of 17:23.7 in her first meet of the year – the McGowen Invitational at Watkins Memorial on Sept. 6 and won Thomas Worthington’s Eisenhart Invitational Oct. 4 with a time of 17:34.0.
Hampton said his focus is more on process-related goals over results.
“(When) you’re second at the state meet four of the last five years, it’s natural to want to look at outcomes and that kind of be the measure of your success,” Hampton said.
“And so shifting that to focus on the process was one of the big things that I wanted to do because the outcomes are great – and we want the outcomes and that’s the goal. But also, the reality is those outcomes are only for seven girls, and we’ve got a team of 25. And so (it’s) creating a meaningful experience for all 25 instead of just the seven that get to (score points).”
Part of the process is making sure that his runners are performing at their best in the postseason. It was a method that took a little convincing.
“It was like our third meet and I asked him if I had lost training or if I was becoming really slow,” Kaulen said. “Because last year by the third meet, we were running kind of what we would have been running at the end of this season.
“Whereas his approach is more of a college elite approach where we want to run the best in October and November and so on if you make it. So, it was just very different and there was a lot of trust in the process.”
The postseason begins with the district meet Oct. 18 at Hilliard Darby for Divisions II, III and IV. Division I opens with the regional meet Oct. 25 at Pickerington North.
Hilliard Davidson head coach Chase Hampton goes over the course with his team prior to Thomas Worthington’s Eisenhart Invitational on Oct. 4. Photo: Kevin Rouch